Resource Roundup: iWeb Themes

Jason Guthrie — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:04:18 +0000

Let’s face it. iWeb allows just about anyone to create a website in minutes with little to absolutely no knowledge of web design. Add some text, drag and drop a few pictures… and BAM! you’ve got yourself a slick looking website. The only problem? It looks just like the thousands of other websites created by everyone else using iWeb. So to stand out from the crowd, consider investing a few dollars into a more unique theme. Here are a few good places to start looking.

Jumsoft iWeb Themes

Maybe best known for its apps Money and Relationship, Jumsoft also offers a number of iWeb themes. There are about 10 themes such as Teddy, Paradise, Business, and Striped paper that sell for $9.99 each, or you can buy all 10 for $69.99. Each theme looks crisp and professional and comes with numerous page layouts including Welcome, About Me, Photos, My Albums, Movie, Podcast Blog, and Blank. Jumsoft also offers six iWeb themes that are cross-compatible with RapidWeaver. You can buy those themes for $12.99 each or all six for $39. The cross-compatible themes are actually my favorite; they are a little more “complex” than the included iWeb themes and therefore appear a bit more professional. If you’re looking to create a site for your school or class, then Jumsoft also offers a package of five iWeb Education Themes for $10 – one for primary through university. Designing for your local sports team or yoga studio? Jumsoft also offers 10 sport themes for $10 each or $50 for all 10.

Jumsoft iWeb Rainbow Theme

11Mystics

Although not as well known, 11Mystics provides 11 different iWeb themes for $10.95 to $19.95 each. A few of the templates look a bit outdated in the current Web 2.0 environment, but a few of them I would seriously consider using myself. I particularly liked the clean look of the “Zones” template which would be perfect for a photo blog, and “Italian Tile” which uses a lot of layered images and textures that competes in quality with some of iWeb’s built-in templates.

11Mystics Zones iWeb Theme

iPresentee

iPresentee offers five themes for iWeb 1.0, five themes for iWeb 2.0, and five business-styled themes for iWeb 2.0 for $10 each or $25 for five ($30 for the business theme package). The templates offered are definitely unique, but aren’t particularly well designed unless you’re into excessive clipart.

iPresentee iWeb Theme

Lamiavia

With 20 themes at around € 5 each ($7.30) or € 40 for all of them ($58.44), Lamiavia arguably has the second largest collection of iWeb themes on the Web. Each theme is unique, but most come with only 6 pages which means the Blog and Podcast pages are not included. Compared to some of the other sites, Lamiavia’s themes are fairly basic. There is generally one background color with a variety of photos and text blocks to provide different layouts. You won’t see the more complicated layering effects here that you do at sites like 11Mystics or Jumsoft.

Lamiavia iWeb Theme

iWeb Weavers

Assuming iWeb Weavers makes good on their promise of more themes “coming soon”, iWeb Weavers will be a place to watch for a decent collection of iWeb themes. Only two themes are available now ($15.99 each) but their site contains previews of three more themes that are “coming soon.” All of their themes are very Apple-esque. My favorite, Aqua Profile, is crisp, clean, and beautiful without a lot of layers or animated icons.

iWebWeavers iWeb Theme

To be honest, I expected to find a lot more developers out there creating themes for iWeb. But after reading a few articles on the complexity of dealing with iWeb’s theme architecture and Apple’s use of widgets and complex layouts, I’m no longer surprised to see so little. But hopefully these themes will get you started – and perhaps even inspire you to create your own iWeb theme.

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TM Themes – A new repository of TextMate themes

Josh Pigford — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 06:14:26 +0000

I’ve been a hardcore TextMate user for over a year now and really can’t function without it. It’s an app we’ve covered a number of times.

One thing I really love about TextMate is how extendible/customizable it’s themes are. I’m a visual coder and having a theme that I can customize to my coding style really speeds up development for me.

The Macromates website has a pretty extensive theme gallery with downloads of dozens of themes but other than that, there isn’t much else out there in terms of “repositories” for themes.

Today a new site dedicated specifically to TextMate themes launched, called TM Themes.

Right now the collection is quite slim but once that is expanded it should be much easier to find themes you like. There’s a rating and comment feature built in also to help you narrow down the good from the bad.

Be sure to check out the site and upload any custom themes you’ve created!